1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to a system for capturing and processing images such as photographs. More particularly, the invention provides a computerized apparatus and method for rapidly processing images using a reciprocating easel and bar codes to identify the images.
2. Related Information
Newspapers and magazines often have a need to capture and store a large number of photographs and other images for use in preparing news stories. For example, a news bureau may maintain a database of photographs in a computer storage device to be retrieved by an author or editor for a particular topic. When the news story is written, the author or editor finds a suitable photograph and inserts the photograph into the news story.
Other applications also require the capture and storage of large numbers of images. For example, it is often desirable to capture images of each page of a newspaper or magazine to create a computer database containing all issues of a magazine or newspaper. Pages from old issues of a magazine may need to be digitized and stored in a computer to provide such a database.
Conventionally, images and photographs have been digitized and stored in computer files using a manual process. For example, a person places a photograph on a digitizing table arranged to hold a single photograph and presses a button to cause the image to be captured and stored in a computer. The person then manually removes the photograph, places the next photograph on the digitizing table, and repeats the process. Rather than scanning or digitizing photographs directly, some systems instead involve steps of re-photographing the original photograph and then scanning the film in a scanner to produce a digitized image.
Conventional methods of capturing and storing images become tedious and labor intensive when a large number of photographs are to be stored. In particular, when a large number of images are to be captured, the time required to manually place and remove the images during the capture process is typically the limiting factor in speeding up the process. Moreover, conventional techniques of processing images using identification labels such as non-unique photograph titles are problematic and unwieldy. Purchasing a large and expensive assembly-line type photographic imaging system, however, even if it were capable of solving such problems, may not be cost effective.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a system which can quickly and efficiently capture and store graphic images in a computer storage device and associate the stored images with unique identification labels on the photographs.